In a guest post over on The Next Stage, Michael Wheeler of Toronto’s Praxis Theatre discusses the effect social media has had on theater:
“As blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media gain popularity they’re giving emerging artists a louder voice in terms of promoting both their work and the ideas that they represent.”
This idea fascinates me. The digital revolution has changed the way artists can build and interact with their audience. Now artists are able to reach people directly in a way they never could before.
So why do people spend $3000 on PR?
Eyeballs. Plain and simple. You’re paying for a connection to connections with eyeballs. PR allows you to get the word out. But as is always the case, press, buzz, a good review or any review is never guaranteed. I’m not saying PR isn’t still important. I’m just saying it can’t always be relied on.
But what if you could extend your existing network?
That’s where the beauty of the digital network comes in. It’s essentially a highly-accelerated networking tool. The concepts are the same as offline, it’s just the tools that have changed. The tools allow you to build your own network of eyeballs. Eyeballs that have the potential to become a paying audience.
Artists are now in a position to be their own publishing channel. We can skip the middle man. We are responsible for getting our own message out.
But how do we do it?
To me it starts with engaging your existing audience. Ask for feedback about what you’re doing. Open up the dialogue. What does your audience want to know more about? This allows you to better serve them. It also allows you to start attracting more people like them.
This is where it gets cloudy for most people
I’m not talking about bending your art to appeal to the masses. What I’m talking about is allowing people an entry point to your art. So they become more connected to your work. This also empowers people to talk more about it. But in order to gain this entry point you need to know what already influences your audience.
Their interests must come first. This opens the door for what you want to share.
For example:
Let’s say you’re a theater company that focuses solely on producing Jacobean plays. Ok. Great. Now I don’t know a darned thing about Jacobean plays. And now matter how many times you mention Jacobean plays, I’m still not going to be interested.
But I am a pretty big U2 fan.
What the heck does that mean?
Well, I’ve just given you insight into something that interests me. So this is information you can use to perk my interest in Jacobean plays. Now as I sift through my inbox/twitter stream/facebook feed ignoring all the posts about Jacobean plays, my eye focuses on this, “Why does U2 owe its success to Jacobean plays?”
Now you’ve got my attention with something I’m interested in. And you’re relating it to what you’d like me to be interested in. (No, I don’t know what the relation is between the two. I’m sure we could find one. But I’m just illustrating the point.)
So find out what your audience is interested in
These new tools allow us to listen. They allow us to connect. And they allow us to learn from each other. Focus on your existing audience to start. What do they like? What do they not like? Why do they see your work?
You might think you know already. But if you haven’t asked, observed and listened–you don’t.
Let the digital revolution amplify the voice of theater
Embrace the tools. Connect. And allow people to become part of what you stand for.
What are your thoughts on these new tools?